Caravan down

[bushy]

Yesterday a caravan (rpt?) made a mayday call and landed on a dirt road south of Alice Springs, due to engine problems. Does anyone have more detail?

[VH-GRUMPY]

CASA - Airservices and Ausar I would have thought.

:bored:

[Over and gout]

I thought the PT6A engine is fail safe & 100% reliable?:confused: Especially with all that engine trend monitoring......

[J430]

I think its a great plane, know a pvt guy who owns one ( not DS either) and its a nice ubit, but globally a lot gent badly bent.

One wonders why???? Is it what they get used for is generally more risky or are they a bit unreliable??????

J:ok:

[Pass-A-Frozo]

I've seen a PT6A eat a Wedge-Tailed Eagle and keep running. When they pulled the inertial seperation unit on the ground, a claw the size of a grown man's hand fell out!
Well. to be strictly correct, I've seen the result of a PT6A ....

[Spinnerhead]

Comon guys Bushy is fishing for the:-

2 busted arse piston engines v's 1 sweet running PT6 argument.

[Hanz Blix]

Those who have operated PT6 in its various forms will know how reliable it is. have oil will run infactt will keep running without for up to 10 mins (so I've heard). Perhaps the HUMS or whatever its called that monitors the engine in the caravan indicated an impeding failure and the pilot decided to put it down prior to gliding, just a thought:ok:

[Capt Claret]

Transiting through Alice the Ginge Beer mentioned an incident with a caravan that had lost oil pressure and whilst on descent for a landing at Alice, decided to land off-field.

Fireys, apparently last seen belting down the Stuart Highway, south bound. :}

[tinpis]

NT NEWS 30/06/06

Plane lands on Alice road
By GAVIN KING
30jun06

PASSENGERS on a charter flight feared for their lives when their plane made an emergency landing on a road at Brewer Estate.

The pilot was forced to turn the engine off while in mid-air and glide to safety when he noticed a loss of oil pressure.

Six passengers were on board the Aboriginal Air Services flight when it left Alice Springs for Ernabella, in SA, at 9.30am on Tuesday.

Passenger Lynley Green said she feared for her life, but praised the pilot for his skill.

The pilot alerted air traffic control to engine problems in the 14-seat Cessna about 85km south of Alice Springs airport.

He turned the plane around but then issued a mayday call when the oil pressure alert light came on, turning the engine off.

He was forced to glide and land on the road leading into the industrial area at Brewer Estate, 5km southwest of Alice Springs airport. The plane burst a tyre on impact with the road.

Aviation firefighting and rescue officers arrived at the scene within minutes of the landing.

They comforted passengers and cleaned leaked engine oil from the road.

Ms Green, from the Warburton Aboriginal community, said: "It was the scariest thing that's happened to me.

"We were trying to get back to the airport but then the pilot turned the engine off.

"He did a good job landing on the road and keeping us safe."

The plane remained on the road for repairs, watched by security guards overnight before taking off on Wednesday.


Well done.:t

[OpsNormal]

Memory might be fading here... in fact it probably doesn't have any bearing on the discussion of the C208, but isn't there a really old abandoned dust strip just adjacent to the higway on the eastern side somewhere down there just south of Brewer Estate?

CRAFT is catching-up here.... ;)

[Muffinman]

Thanks for your sign off Tin. Appreciate your regards. Just followed the POH from memory - especially the expanded section - sometimes an area worth reading since it came from those in the know so to speak and didnt have a lot of time to check my notes when it happened. dunno about the ten minutes as i was keen to get a feathered prop - didnt get to the bar that night to hear that gem - and was also outbound and not intending at the time to come home - anyway got to see the red warning light and watched an oil psi needle falling quicker than the ozzy dollar past 38 psi plus a torque gauge and shadin reading going ape - and the rest is history - knicked the edge of the road (bitumen to gravel probably hurt the tyre) just waiting now for the parking ticket. Flying it home the next day was more stressfull. Problem PROBABLY appears to be a broken seal at the cracked and separated forward elbow lug of the oil supply line to the prop and reduction gear box (see Flight safety trainining manual diag page 6-9). My thanks to the firies and controllers as they were excellent in their assistance (and i apologise if i forgot to readback anything at the time)

[yowie]

5 C208 acc/inc in the latest crash comic(intl side). Well done pylit!:D

[neville_nobody]

They are VERY VERY lucky that this didn't happen on their Tennant Creek RPT flight which is flown predominately at night with pax.

Whoever in CASA signed out the original ASEPTA approval must having second thoughts right about now!!

[tinpis]

Muffinman

Now get back in the saddle real quick.
That big book written in sleepy ink they gave you about Mr Pratts fine little engine , pull it out and read it until it makes absolute sense.
No accountant or insurance actuary will be with you when the single engine that should never stop in fact does

Have good think about what you might do on an "inside a horses guts" NT night.:uhoh:

Hope you have a good cracker night

Good onyer

TP

[DUXNUTZ]

Alot of the incidents with the 208 come from icing encounters and the lack of performance with the Ice Vane on. In the US they lose one every winter. Talked to a guy and saw plane after a full power decent back into field due ice. Not nice.

Pt6 can handle alot. Flown plane with two of em and checking the oil is listed in our ops specs as a maintenance function not a pilot function so there you go. No need to climb on the wing!:ok:

[zac21]

[QUOTE=DUXNUTZ]"Alot of the incidents with the 208 come from icing encounters and the lack of performance with the Ice Vane on. In the US they lose one every winter."
What a load of ****e !!!!!:yuk: :yuk:
"Icing problems in North America",, only if you ignore the flight manual and /or the weather forcast... We all know the van does not carry ice well,,,,,,
And
"The lack of performance with the ice vane on" ( Inertial separator in Bypass ):= := Horse****e !!
And
"In the US they lose one every winter" !!!!! (Only one ????????)
Good on you , Muffinman,,Well done ,,, :D :D :D

[rmcdonal]

Great job Muffinman :D :D Only a burst tire you should be proud of that effort. :ok: It's always going to be a shock to the system when something they say can't happen....does.
Now you have a war story for the grand kiddies. And the best bit is your still around to tell it.
:ok: :ok: :ok:

[Pass-A-Frozo]

I think the PT6 is a great engine. Anti-icing places a greaqt load on any engine.

It's a little unfare to say the PT6 is crap based on it's anti ice perfomance. Many engines have problems, and correct me if I'm wrong but the requirements have tightened up over the years. So a 70's aircraft may look to "out-perform" a 1990+ aircraft if compared simply on a "Anti/De-Ice on" perspective.

I know of someone flying a [an aircraft with a] PT6 for nearly 10 minutes with oil on their canopy and it still ticking along fine!

[thekite]

Damn fine flying, Muffinman,

I have had that particular problem twice before, once in a Hughes 500 - just landed out and asked Bankstown Tower to get more oil sent out. Problem was a leaking #1 compressor seal. The engine drank it's own oil.

And once out over the North Sea, in a twin. We just pulled the sick engine back to flight idle, and watched the pressure stabilise.

Oil Temp actually dropped with the oil pressure!

Turned out that #8 scavenge pump had NOT been fitted with the requisite O ring. And the engine drank it's own oil.

Theory is that any turbine engine will run for quite some time with no oil pressure - until you reduce power whereupon it will immediately seize.